Hammer's Business Solutions

Outreach Strategists, LLC is a global public affairs and strategic communications firm. We specialize in international public relations, conflict solutions, risk management and global grassroots consulting.

Useful Web Sites

• http://www.outreachstrategists.com/

Our Approach

Ethnic and religious minority communities are becoming increasingly important both to Western governments and to the business sector. They are growing in number, significance, voice, and impact. At the center of this generation’s most complex and important challenges are Asian and Muslim communities. As we are seeing, when key segments of our society are left outside of the mainstream, deep cultural rifts emerge. We advise public agencies and private enterprises on how to bridge these divides by connecting critical stakeholders across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Our unique, effective, winning approach to communications is built on a strong foundation of cultural understanding, trust and innovation.

Corporate Crisis Management: Africa

The challenge:
A North American power company operating in Africa confronted a barrage of false, negative publicity. When a minor dispute could not be resolved to the government’s liking, local officials in East Africa began a campaign of misinformation against the American company—despite having just granted them the right to build and operate a new facility. As the risk of persecution and potential harm to its local staff was increasing, the company was contemplating abandoning the project.

The costs were enormous both in terms of future prospects, un-recovered investments, and most importantly the safety of its employees.

Our role:
Our understanding of the local politics and culture, as well as of how and where influence needed to be exerted, enabled us to formulate and implement an effective strategy for combating this crisis. Outreach Strategists immediately engaged a broad coalition of U.S. elected officials, interfaith leaders, former diplomats and lawyers to bring local officials of this East African government to the bargaining table, arranging a mutually beneficial result. By bringing political pressure to bear on the proper elements within the national government, we helped stop the local politicians from engaging in their slanderous and potentially dangerous activities.

The result:
Employing the help and input of local officials and U.S. civic and political leaders helped to ameliorate the situation and provide a constructive means of addressing the original dispute. Given the damage that had already been done in the local media, which became available on the Internet, we also helped our client improve their online presence to counter negative information and to prevent any erosion of the company’s strong brand.